October 6, 2008, 10:12 PM CT

Using a fan during sleep associated with lower risk of SIDS

Fan use appears to be linked to a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in rooms with inadequate ventilation, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The national occurence rate of SIDS decreased 56 percent from 1992 to 2003, as per background information in the article. This decline is largely attributed to the increased use of the supine sleep position (lying on the back with head facing up) after the introduction of the "Back to Sleep" campaign in 1994. In more recent years, the decrease in SIDS has leveled off. "Eventhough caretakers should continue to be encouraged to place infants on their backs to sleep, other potentially modifiable risk factors in the sleep environment should be examined to promote further decline in the rate of SIDS." The association between room ventilation and SIDS risk is a factor that has not received sufficient attention. Inadequate room ventilation might facilitate the pooling of carbon dioxide around an infant's nose and mouth, increasing the likelihood of rebreathing. The movement of air in the room may potentially reduce the risk of SIDS.

Kimberly Coleman-Phox, M.P.H., and his colleagues at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., analyzed information from interviews of mothers of 185 infants who had died from SIDS and mothers of 312 randomly selected infants from the same county, maternal race/ethnicity and age. Mothers were asked about fan use, pacifier use, open window in the room at the infant's last sleep, room location, sleep surface, number and type of covers over the infant, bedding under the infant and room temperature......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 2, 2008, 5:04 AM CT

Acupressure calms children before surgery

An acupressure therapy applied to children undergoing anesthesia noticeably lowers their anxiety levels and makes the stress of surgery more calming for them and their families, UC Irvine anesthesiologists have learned.

As per Dr. Zeev Kain, anesthesiology and perioperative care chair, and his Yale University collaborator Dr. Shu-Ming Wang, this noninvasive, drug-free method is an effective, complementary anxiety-relief treatment for children during surgical preparation. Sedatives currently used before anesthesia can cause nausea and prolong sedation.

"Anxiety in children before surgery is bad because of the emotional toll on the child and parents, and this anxiety can lead to prolonged recovery and the increased use of analgesics for postoperative pain," said Kain, who led the acupressure study. "What's great about the use of acupressure is that it costs very little and has no side effects".

In this study, Kain and his Yale colleagues applied adhesive acupressure beads to 52 children between the ages of 8 and 17 who were to undergo endoscopic stomach surgery. In half the children, a bead was applied to the Extra-1 acupoint, which is located in the midpoint between the eyebrows. In the other half, the bead was applied to a spot above the left eyebrow that has no reported clinical effects......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

October 1, 2008, 9:30 PM CT

Television Viewing and Aggression

The effect of media violence on behavior is not only an interesting psychological question but is also a relevant public policy and public health issue. Eventhough a number of studies have been conducted examining the link between violence on TV and aggressive behavior, most of these studies have overlooked several other potentially significant factors, including the dramatic context of the violence and the type of violence depicted as well as the race and ethnicity of the viewers.

In a new study appearing in the recent issue of Perspecitves on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychology experts Seymour Feshbach from the University of California, Los Angeles and June Tangney from George Mason University investigated the effect that exposure to violent TV programs has on negative behavior in children from different ethnic backgrounds. To investigate this connection, the psychology experts conducted a study that reviewed TV viewing habits, intelligence, and behavior in 4th, 5th and 6th grade children. To assess these qualities, the children's parents and teachers completed behavioral questionnaires detailing the children's aggression, delinquency and cruelty. The children took IQ tests and completed surveys indicating the TV programs (which were later categorized as violent or non-violent by the researchers) they had watched during a seven day time period......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

September 29, 2008, 10:37 PM CT

Birth size is a marker of susceptibility to breast cancer

Birth size, and in particular birth length, correlates with subsequent risk of breast cancer in adulthood, as per a new study published in PLoS Medicine by scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Associations between birth size, perhaps as a marker of the pre-natal environment, and subsequent breast cancer risk have been identified before, but the findings from epidemiological studies have been inconsistent.

In the new study, led by Isabel dos Santos Silva (Professor of Epidemiology), the scientists re-analysed data from published and unpublished studies to obtain more precise estimates of the extent to which birth size affects the risk of breast cancer during the later part of life and to investigate whether they could be explained by associations with other risk factors.

They examined 32 studies, comprising 22,058 cases of breast cancer among a total of more than 600,000 women, most of whom lived in developed countries. They observed that birth weight was positively linked to breast cancer risk in studies where information on birth size was based on birth records (eventhough not in those based on adult self-reports, which tend to be less accurate). Analyses of women with data from birth records showed that a 0.5 kg increment in birth weight was linked to an estimated 7% increase in the risk of breast cancer......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

September 24, 2008, 6:56 PM CT

American kids most medicated

American children are approximately three times more likely to be prescribed psychotropic medicine than children in Europe. A new study published recently in BioMed Central's open access journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health claims that the differences may be accounted for by regulatory practices and cultural beliefs about the role of medicine in emotional and behavioural problems.

Julie Zito led a team of scientists from the USA, Gera number of and the Netherlands who investigated prescription levels in the three countries. She said, "Antidepressant and stimulant prevalence were three or more times greater in the US than in the Netherlands and Gera number of, while antipsychotic prevalence was 1.5 to 2.2 times greater".

The use of antidepressants, like Prozac, and stimulants, like Ritalin, in children has been the subject of a great deal of controversy and this study quantifies the differences in practice between the US and Western Europe. The authors claim that the differences may be partly due to different diagnostic classification systems, "The US trend of increasing bipolar diagnosis in children and adolescents does not reflect European practice". The authors also mention government cost restrictions in Europe, the larger number of child psychiatry experts per capita in the US and the use of two or more different psychotropic drugs in a single year in US children as possible explanations......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

August 31, 2008, 8:47 PM CT

Magnesium Sulfate Reduces Risk of Cerebral Palsy

Results of a 10-year study reported in the August 28 issue of the New England Journal (NEJM) observed that magnesium sulfate administered to women delivering before 32 weeks of gestation reduced the risk of cerebral palsy by 50 percent. The Beneficial Effects of Antenatal Magnesium Sulfate (BEAM) trial was conducted in 18 centers in the U.S., including Northwestern Memorial, and is the first prenatal intervention ever found to reduce the instance of cerebral palsy correlation to premature birth.

Magnesium sulfate is traditionally used in obstetrics to stop premature labor and prevent seizures in women with hypertension. The BEAM trial studied the link between magnesium sulfate and cerebral palsy by identifying 2,240 women who were likely to give birth more than two months premature. Half of the women intravenously received magnesium sulfate while the other half received a placebo. Children born to the women in the study were examined at two-years-old, and results observed that the children in the magnesium group were 50 percent less likely to develop cerebral palsy in comparison to children in the placebo group.

"This is a substantial breakthrough in maternal fetal medicine that could positively impact the health of thousands of babies," said Alan Peaceman, MD, chair of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and an investigator in the study. "After 10 years of studying the effects of magnesium sulfate, it has proven to be a successful method of reducing the outcome of cerebral palsy in premature births"......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

August 31, 2008, 8:31 PM CT

New genes for inflammatory bowel disease in children

Scientists have discovered two new genes that increase the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in childhood.

While further study is needed to identify the specific disease-causing mutations in these new genes, the scientists say the genes are especially strong candidates to be added to the list of genes already known to affect IBD. "As we continue to find genes that interact with each other and with environmental influences in this complex, chronic disease, we are building the foundation for personalized therapys tailored to a patient's genetic profile," said co-first author Robert N. Baldassano, M.D., director of the Center for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"We will resequence the gene regions we have identified to pinpoint the causative mutations in these genes," added study leader Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Genomics at Children's Hospital. "We strongly suspect one gene will provide a compelling target for drug development, given what's known about its biology".

Both authors direct research programs at Children's Hospital and are also faculty members of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Their study, performed in collaboration with scientists from the Medical College of Wisconsin, The University of Utah, Cincinnati Children's Hospital and two research hospitals in Italy, appears in advance online publication Aug. 31 in Nature Genetics........ Posted by: Scott      Read more         Source

August 31, 2008, 8:15 PM CT

'Superbug' breast infections controllable in nursing mothers

A number of nursing mothers who have been hospitalized for breast abscesses are afflicted with the "superbug" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, but as per new research by UT Southwestern Medical Center physicians, conservative therapy can deal with the problem.

The study focused on hospitalized women with mastitis, and showed that MRSA was much more likely to be found in those who had both mastitis (an inflammation of the milk glands) and abscesses (pockets of infection).

"The take-home message is that a patient with mastitis does not necessarily need an antibiotic against MRSA," said Dr. George Wendel, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and senior author of the study, which appears in the recent issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. "She will improve with a less specific antibiotic as long as she also empties her breasts, either through feeding or pumping, and if there's an abscess, gets it treated".

The study also showed that if a nursing mother has an abscess, she does not immediately need antibiotics against MRSA, but can be switched to them if tests reveal she has MRSA.

The study was designed to determine which antibiotic therapy is best for severe cases of mastitis, which can be caused by clogged milk ducts with or without infection, and breast abscesses, which are caused by bacterial infections, generally by aureus. There are a number of strains of staph, one of which is MRSA......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 20, 2008, 8:21 PM CT

Childhood ear infections may predispose to obesity later in life

Scientists are reporting new evidence of a possible link between a history of moderate to severe middle ear infections in childhood and a tendency to be overweight during the later part of life. Their study suggests that prompt diagnosis and therapy of middle ear infections one of the most common childhood conditions requiring medical attention may help fight obesity in some people. The findings were presented today at the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Study leader Linda M. Bartoshuk, Ph.D., noted that chronic, repeated ear infections can damage the chorda tympani nerve, which passes through the middle ear and controls taste sensations. Damage to this nerve appears to intensify the desire for fatty or high-energy foods, which could result in obesity, she said.

Other research has shown that middle ear infections, or otitis media, are becoming more common in children. Childhood obesity is likewise on the rise and has reached epidemic levels, especially in the United States. Eventhough researchers have known for years that ear infections can lead to hearing loss in children that can result in speech and language impairment, a possible link between ear infections and obesity has been largely unexplored until now, said Bartoshuk, who is with the University of Florida's Center for Smell and Taste in Gainesville......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

August 18, 2008, 8:58 PM CT

For Earlier Detection Of Autism

Recently, Harvard scientists reported that children with autism have a wide range of genetic defects, making it nearly impossible to develop a simple genetic test to identify the disorder. Now, University of Missouri scientists are studying 3-D imaging to reveal correlations in the facial features and brain structures of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which will enable them to develop a formula for earlier detection of the disorder. The scientists anticipate their work also will reveal genetic clues that can direct additional research. Autism is a brain disorder characterized by a complex of social, communication and behavioral difficulties.

"When you compare the faces and head shapes of children with specific types of autism to other children, it is obvious there are variations. Currently, autism diagnosis is purely behavior based and doctors use tape measurements to check for facial and brain dissimilarities. We are in the process of developing a quantitative method that will accurately measure these differences and allow for earlier, more precise detection of specific types of the disorder," said Ye Duan, assistant computer science professor in the MU College of Engineering. "Once we have created a formula, we can pre-screen children by performing a quick, non-invasive scan of each child's face and brain to check for abnormalities. Early detection is crucial in treating children and preparing families"......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source